Saturday, November 30, 2013

If We Ain't Ready By Now, Its Too Late To Create For The Holidays!

"Presents Under The Christmas Tree"

For years now, the day after Thanksgiving is decorating day at my house. It was more elaborate and took more time but for one day, with everyone working, the house was transformed into a Christmas fairyland. The kids were small, but excitement was in the air. Once those stockings were hung they knew Santa WAS coming! True incentive.

As the kids got older and our teenage son hid the Christmas music he said he hated before his year abroad in Italy, the decorating became a little less intense. Fewer things were brought out and decorating both Grandma's tree and our house got to be a bit much.

This year my son was here to help us (no Christmas music) and I realized that it really was going to be Christmas. It was not even four weeks away, it was barely 25 days!

The projects that littered my workspace, yes they ARE Christmas themed, would make no sense to sell right now. They would barely be seen before Christmas and who would care after for months?

I will continue to work on them through and after Christmas because, even though I am indoors, its pretty hard to get enthused in sunny Southern California when the sun is out, the days are in the 80's and Christmas seems far away. In fact, if I were smart I would be concentrating on Easter having already done (I didn't do any) Valentine's Day crafts. With the past few weeks being taken up with doctor's visits, my rhythm got off and that might continue for weeks yet to come.

Like a good retailer, you have to plan well in advance for the "season." If one is to use a store like Etsy, that would be a cycle of four months or 8 months if you are trying to snag those early shoppers. The same goes for Valentines day, at least four months in advance...meaning its completed and ready to put in your store to be sold four months before Feb. 14th. Talk about the witch chasing Santa, so is Cupid!

Then comes Easter, then not much until the 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving and finally Christmas again. However, that should not rule out birthdays, anniversaries, graduation gifts, wedding gifts, house warming gifts, even newborns if you are a knitter, seamstress or crochet. Its all in the planning and being able to put those future dates in your mind is to be prepared1 If you haven't, you might want to write those dates in your calendar and set targets that you want to be done so you can post and hopefully sell items before those holidays. It's all in the planning!

Visit KrugsStudio.etsy.com for a broad selection of unique, hand crafted items you will not find anywhere else. Christmas is coming!!!